Again, the intellect flies (moves) in a more occult manner than the (vital) spirit: (your mental) perception makes its way to (apprehends) the (vital) spirit sooner (than it apprehends the intellect).
باز عقل از روح مخفیتر بود ** حس سوی روح زوتر ره برد
(If) you see a movement, you know that he (who moves) is alive; (but) this you do not know, that he is full of intellect,3255
جنبشی بینی بدانی زنده است ** این ندانی که ز عقل آگنده است
Until regulated movements appear, and he by means of knowledge turns the motion of copper into gold.
تا که جنبشهای موزون سر کند ** جنبش مس را به دانش زر کند
From manual actions being conformable (to reason) you may perceive that there is intellect (behind them).
ز آن مناسب آمدن افعال دست ** فهم آید مر ترا که عقل هست
The spirit (that partakes) of Divine inspiration is more concealed than the intellect, because it is of the Unseen: it belongs to that side.
روح وحی از عقل پنهانتر بود ** ز انکه او غیب است او ز ان سر بود
The intellect of Ahmad (Mohammed) was not hidden from any one; (but) his spirit of (prophetic) inspiration was not apprehended by every soul.
عقل احمد از کسی پنهان نشد ** روح وحیش مدرک هر جان نشد
The spirit of prophecy also has actions conformable (to reason), (but) the intellect does not apprehend (them), for that (spirit) is exalted (above intellectual apprehension).3260
روح وحیی را مناسبهاست نیز ** در نیابد عقل کان آمد عزیز
Sometimes he (the man of intellect) regards (the actions of one endowed with the spirit) as madness, sometimes he is bewildered, since it (all) depends on his becoming that (other one);
گه جنون بیند گهی حیران شود ** ز انکه موقوف است تا او آن شود
As (for example) the intellect of Moses was troubled by seeing the reasonable actions of Khadir.
چون مناسبهای افعال خضر ** عقل موسی بود در دیدش کدر
His actions seemed unreasonable to Moses, since he (Moses) had not his (Khadir's) state (of Divine inspiration).
نامناسب مینمود افعال او ** پیش موسی چون نبودش حال او
Inasmuch as the intellect of Moses becomes tied up (perplexed and helpless) in (the matter of) the mysterious (inspiration), who (what) is the intellect of a (mere) mouse, O excellent (reader)?
عقل موسی چون شود در غیب بند ** عقل موشی خود کی است ای ارجمند
Conventional knowledge is (only) for sale (self-advertisement): when it finds a purchaser, it glows with delight.3265
علم تقلیدی بود بهر فروخت ** چون بیابد مشتری خوش بر فروخت
The purchaser of real knowledge is God: its market is always splendid.
مشتری علم تحقیقی حق است ** دایما بازار او با رونق است
He (the owner of real knowledge) has closed his lips (and is) enraptured in (his) trading: the purchasers are without end, for God hath purchased.
لب ببسته مست در بیع و شری ** مشتری بیحد که الله اشتری
The angels purchase Adam's teaching; the devils and Jinn are not privileged to receive it.
درس آدم را فرشته مشتری ** محرم درسش نه دیو است و پری
Adam, inform them of the Names, give (them) teaching, explain the mysteries of God, hair by hair.
آدم أنبئهم بأسما درس گو ** شرح کن اسرار حق را مو به مو
Such a person as is short-sighted, plunged in variability and without steadfastness,3270
آن چنان کس را که کوته بین بود ** در تلون غرق و بیتمکین بود
I called a “mouse,” because his place is in the earth (of the body): earth is the place of living for the mouse.
موش گفتم ز انکه در خاک است جاش ** خاک باشد موش را جای معاش
He knows (many) ways, but (only) underground: he has pierced the earth in every direction.
راهها داند ولی در زیر خاک ** هر طرف او خاک را کرده ست چاک
The mouse-soul is naught but a nibbler: to the mouse is given a mind proportionate to its need,
نفس موشی نیست الا لقمه رند ** قدر حاجت موش را عقلی دهند
Because without need the Almighty God does not give anything to any one.
ز انکه بیحاجت خداوند عزیز ** مینبخشد هیچ کس را هیچ چیز
If the earth had not been needed by the (inhabitants of the) world, the Lord of all beings would not have created any (earth);3275
گر نبودی حاجت عالم زمین ** نافریدی هیچ رب العالمین
And if this quaking earth had not needed mountains, He would not have created them sublime (as they are);
وین زمین مضطرب محتاج کوه ** گر نبودی نافریدی پر شکوه
And if there had not been need of the heavenly spheres also, He would not have created from non-existence the Seven Skies.
ور نبودی حاجت افلاک هم ** هفت گردون نافریدی از عدم
The sun and moon and these stars—how did they come plain into view except through need?
آفتاب و ماه و این استارگان ** جز به حاجت کی پدید آمد عیان
Need, then is the noose for (all) things that exsist: He (God) gives to Man instruments in proportion to his need.
پس کمند هستها حاجت بود ** قدر حاجت مرد را آلت دهد
Therefore quickly augment thy need, O needy one, in order that the Sea of Bounty may surge up in loving kindness.3280
پس بیفزا حاجت ای محتاج زود ** تا بجوشد در کرم دریای جود
These beggars (are) on the (public) road, and every sufferer (among them) is displaying his need to the people—
این گدایان بر ره و هر مبتلا ** حاجت خود مینماید خلق را
Blindness and palsy and sickness and pain—that men's pity may be aroused by this need.
کوری و شلی و بیماری و درد ** تا از این حاجت بجنبد رحم مرد
Does he (any one) ever say, “Give bread, O people, for I have riches and granaries and trays (of viands)?”
هیچ گوید نان دهید ای مردمان ** که مرا مال است و انبار است و خوان
God has not put eyes in the mole, because it does not need eyes for (getting) food.
چشم ننهادهست حق در کور موش ** ز انکه حاجت نیست چشمش بهر نوش
It is able to live without eyes and sight: in the dank earth it is independent of eyes.3285
میتواند زیست بیچشم و بصر ** فارغ است از چشم او در خاک تر
It never comes out from the earth but for theft, to the end that the Creator may purge it of that thievishness.
جز به دزدی او برون ناید ز خاک ** تا کند خالق از آن دزدیش پاک
After that (purification), it will get wings and become a bird, like the angels, it will go towards heaven.
بعد از آن پر یابد و مرغی شود ** چون ملایک جانب گردون رود
Every moment, in the rose-garden of thanksgiving to God, it will produce a hundred (sweet) notes, like the nightingale,
هر زمان در گلشن شکر خدا ** او بر آرد همچو بلبل صد نوا
Singing, “O Thou that deliverest me from evil qualities! O Thou that makest a hell Paradise!
کای رهاننده مرا از وصف زشت ** ای کننده دوزخی را تو بهشت
Thou puttest light in a piece of fat; Thou, O Self-sufficing One, givest (the sense of) hearing to a bone.”3290
در یکی پیهی نهی تو روشنی ** استخوانی را دهی سمع ای غنی
What connexion have those concepts (e.g. sight and hearing) with the body? What connexion has the apprehension of things with (their) names?
چه تعلق آن معانی را به جسم ** چه تعلق فهم اشیا را به اسم
The word is like the nest, and the meaning is the bird: the body is the riverbed, and the spirit is the rolling water.
لفظ چون وکرست و معنی طایر است ** جسم جوی و روح آب سایر است
It is moving, and you say it is standing: it is running, and you say it is keeping still.
او روان است و تو گویی واقف است ** او دوان است و تو گویی عاکف است
If you see not the movement of the water through the fissures (channels) of earth—(yet it is moving): what are the sticks and straws (ever appearing) anew on it?
گر نبینی سیر آب از خاکها ** چیست بر وی نو به نو خاشاکها
Your sticks and straws are the forms (ideas) of thought: (these) virgin forms are always coming on anew.3295
هست خاشاک تو صورتهای فکر ** نو به نو در میرسد اشکال بکر
The surface of the water and stream of thought, as it rolls, is not without sticks and straws, (some) pleasing and (some) unsightly.
روی آب جوی فکر اندر روش ** نیست بیخاشاک محبوب و وحش
The husks on the surface of this rolling water have sped along from the fruits of the Invisible Garden.
قشرها بر روی این آب روان ** از ثمار باغ غیبی شد دوان
Seek the kernels of the husks (not on the water, but) in the Garden, because the water comes from the Garden into the river-bed.
قشرها را مغز اندر باغ جو ** ز انکه آب از باغ میآید به جو
If you see not the flow of the Water of Life, look at the stream and at this movement of the weeds (in it).
گر نبینی رفتن آب حیات ** بنگر اندر جوی و این سیر نبات
When the water begins to pass by in fuller volume, the husks, (which are) the ideas, pass along it more quickly.3300
آب چون انبهتر آید در گذر ** زو کند قشر صور زوتر گذر
When this stream has become extremely rapid in its flow, no care lingers in the minds of the gnostics.
چون به غایت تیز شد این جو روان ** غم نپاید در ضمیر عارفان
Since it is (then) exceedingly full and swift, on that account there is no room in it for anything but the water.
چون به غایت ممتلی بود و شتاب ** پس نگنجید اندر او الا که آب
How a stranger reviled the Shaykh and how the Shaykh's disciple answered him.
طعنه زدن بیگانه ای در شیخ و جواب گفتن مرید شیخ او را
A certain man brought charges against a Shaykh, saying, “He is wicked and not on the path of righteousness;
آن یکی یک شیخ را تهمت نهاد ** کاو بد است و نیست بر راه رشاد